There must have been something wrong with my tone to prompt Tony's reply,
sorry.
Certainly if you're a hardware hacker, it will sometimes be faster to
build your own gadget than to buy it off the shelf, and it's easier to
modify. If you're a software hacker, it's a lot easier to buy the hardware
off the shelf as long as it does what you need. I'm sure there are some
of both types on this mailing list, and many shades of gray in between.
Tim Mann tim.mann(a)compaq.com
http://www.tim-mann.org
Compaq Computer Corporation, Systems Research Center, Palo Alto, CA